Old Folks in Da Hood, Pt II

Death 2 goes something like this. From what I can gather, Ms. Thelma had been pretty out of reality for quite a few years. She'd always ask me when her parents were coming to get her. She appeared to think she was at school or camp. If I'd ask her about her son, she'd look bewildered. Her son and daughter in law were devoted to her. They'd pick her up every Tuesday for lunch, hair and nails. You could see her dementia getting worse with each month. Visits became rather quick. I knew if I had a lot to take care of at her ALF, I could depend on Ms Thelma to only taking 60 seconds of my time. Pretty much, I'd check to make sure she was clean, fed, & moitor her cognitive level. All quick checks. Using 3 of my 5 senses. Smell, sight, and hearing. You decide which I used for which check. Of course I'd check with the staff, or her pal, Ms Kay, to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Ms. Kay was just as demented, but sure as shit, she'd tell you precisely what was wrong with Ms Thelma or if she'd eaten lunch. Thelma wound up in the hospital with a UTI a month back. UTIs are weird in the elderly. They can change their demeanors, personalities etc. Who knew? Ms Thelma came back to her ALF but never fully recovered. The last time I saw her, she was drastically changed. She no longer asked about her parents. She just mumbled under her breath and asked me some off the wall question. Repeatedly, the same question. By chance her son and daughter in law showed up for their standing Tuesday appt. Always a gregarious couple, we talked easily about their mother and the changes I noticed. She didn't know her name this time, didn't know her son's name etc. They always know their own names or respond to them anyway. Her son sat with her and held her hand while she had a lovely peaceful smile on her face and Ms Kay filled him in on her meals. Ms Thelma looked SO peaceful hand in hand with Ron that I looked a couple of times to make sure she was still alive. We talked about plans for Ms Thelma's future. Ron was concerned the ALF wouldn't be able to meet her needs and would ask him to remove her. He was greatly relieved to hear the manager tell him she had never planned on that and believed Ms Thelma was home and should live out her life there. We arranged to increase hospice care the next day. Ms. Thelma passed about 1 wk later. As I offered my condolences to Ron, he asked if he could tell me a story and offered that something weird had happened. I'm all up for weird stories and promised he wouldn't scare me. Ron gave me brief back round on how they'd hired a woman to care for Ms Thelma in her own home for about 5 yrs. Of course the women became friends. When Ms Thelma broke her hip and went to rehab, she was also out of money and the aide had to be let go. The aide followed Ms Thelma to the rehab so she could continue to keep an eye on her. The ladies remained friends. The aide would go to the ALF once in awhile to visit her. Ron called the aide to tell her his mother had died. Before he could say anything, she stopped him and said she already knew. She'd had a dream about 4:30 am with Ms Thelma. The two were sitting under a tree in a park with lots of children playing nearby. She said it was so vivid, that she just knew what it meant. Ms Thelma died at 5:00 am.